83 [ 237 ] 



in their canoes, bringing ;ilon^ witli them their wigwams, and located 

 themselves near St. Louis ; their women aiding the colonists in their rural 

 occupations, and in building their houses. The Osages visitod the place 

 three or four times a year, but not in a body. After a while, all the other 

 northeastern nations adopted the same custom ; and even the Sacs and 

 Foxes, after the destruction of the Illitiois nation, having driven away the 

 Peorias, who were the last remnants of this nation, came in to trade away 

 tiieir maple sugar, their pecans, &c. 



The Peorias, after having been expelled from their village on the Illinois 

 river, took refuge at Ivaskaskia. Afterwards, they fled below St. Louis, 

 on the spot where the arsenal is now located ; and, the British no longer 

 occupying Fort Chartres, although the country still belonged to them, they 

 again took refuge there, and under tlie American government ; their huntincr- 

 grounds were in the vicinity of St. Genevieve. It was, however, on the 

 prairies of Kaskaskia that they were finally destroyed by their enemies, 

 and by the use of ardent spirits. The last attack upon them by the Sacs 

 and Foxes, and other allied tribes, must have taken place between 1800 and 

 1S04. 



Had St. Louis been destined to remain a village, her history mifi^ht have 

 been despatched in a few lines. But future generations will inquire of us 

 all that concerns the origin of the " River Q,ueen," the destined queen of 

 the western empire. Having so far sketched its early history, it becomes 

 necessary to record the principal events connected with the city and its 

 vicinity. 



In 1767, a man by the name of Delor Detergette settled upon a splen- 

 did amphitheatre on the rijiht bank of the Mississippi, six miles south of 

 St. Louis. He was soon followed by others; but, as ihey were not over- 

 burdened with v/ealth, they used to pay frequent visits to their kinsfolk of 

 St. Louis, who, on seeing them approach, would exclaim, " Here come the 

 empty pockets,"' — " voila les poches videsqui viennent.''^ But, on some oc- 

 casion, a wag remarked, " You had better call them emptiers of pocketSy" 

 — les vide-poches; a compliment wliich was retaliated by these upon the 

 place of St. Louis, which was subject to frequent seasons of want, by styling 

 it Paiacourt — short of bread. The village, being still nameless, retained 

 the appellation of Vide-poche until 1776, when it was changed into that of 

 Carondelet. 



In 17o9, settlements were made on both shores of the lower portion of 

 the Missouri river. Blanchette, surnamed '-the hunter," built his log- 

 house on the hills called les Petites Cotes; being the first dwellinof of the 

 beautiful village that, in 17S4, received the name of St. Charles. 



Fraufois Borosier Dunegan commenced the viWa^eoi Florissan/; which 

 name it still popularly retains, although more lately called by the Spaniards 

 St. Ferdinand. 



About the same time, Francois Saucier originated the establishment of 

 the Portage des iSioux, on the bank of the Mississippi, seven miles above 

 the mouth of the Missouri. 



In 1778, on the 20th of June, Pierre Ligueste Laclede, the founder of 

 St. Louis, died in the village called the Posie des Arkansas, on Arkansas 

 river. Mr. Laclede had continued to reside in St. Louis. His house, 

 situated in what is now Main street, between Market and Walnut streets, 

 and opposite the old market, became, after his death, the property of rhe 

 late Col. A. Chouteau, who enlarged it, adorned the premises with a kne 



